One of the most
exciting parts of working with the PR and marketing team at Westfield Carousel
is the exposure we get to big acts and names due to national contracts. During
my time working I got to be a part of The Voice 2013 winner, Harrison Craig coming
to Carousel to perform and do a signing for 200 screaming fans.
Of course my
involvement in this event started long before the actual day of Harrison's
performance and what an eye opener! Having previously assisted in minor roles
for similar performances in the centre I didn’t really know how much of my role
would be different this time around but it was!
While we first started
planning this event about 4 weeks out from the actual day (for anyone who has
been working with events you’ll appreciate that this is quite short notice to
start campaigning!) However, the initial planning stages in centre involved our
team liaising and communicating with a National events coordinator, who works
closely on contracts with Sony BMG and Samsung, relationships that allowed such
a fast-paced event planning phase.
It wasn’t until three
weeks out that we knew we were actually getting Harrison Craig, as this was
when the winner of The Voice was announced, prior to this it was extremely
vague as to who would be coming to perform; if anyone at all. Once we knew it
was Harrison, we had to decide which Western Australian Westfield he would
perform at- Carousel Innaloo or Whitford City. Based on other engagements throughout
the year it was decided it was fairest for Harrison to come to Carousel- the
FIRST stop on his Australian whirlwind tour!
So we knew who we were
getting and when we were getting him- now we just had to make sure that all
stakeholders that could possibly be affected or interested in Harrison’s performance
were aware and aroused. Essentially we wanted to maintain the support of those
that would be in-centre anyway whilst attracting new customers.
There are so many
people to think about and communicate with; event briefs and run sheets we
developed and distributed to Centre management staff, risk assessors, contractors
(stage & sound) retailers within the shopping centre, additional security,
Concierge team members, cleaners, media just to name a few!
This event was one of
the biggest gigs WA centre’s get so it was very exciting; adding to the
pressures and thrill was the fact that we were the first centre to get
Harrison. We didn’t have any precedent to base number expectations and general
crowd mood from.
Everything ran
smoothly however and we had a turn out bigger than expected which lead Harrison
to stay an extra hour than was initially planned, but lucky for us Harrison was
more than happy to stay around and talk to fans- he was so easy to work with
and very appreciate of everyone around him and of his fans especially. We were
thrilled that after the signing he stayed around to talk to the team and was genuinely
grateful for how smoothly things had run.
This event was one of
the most rewarding I had been a part of and although we were lucky with
Harrison and how nice he was- I do not believe in ‘luck’ as a concept in an
event plan. You have to plan for absolutely everything. It was phenomenal to
see the senior staff think of so many little details that for me didn’t seem so
important; however on the day it was evident they were.
My favourite part however
was sitting back and looking through the photos of the day with Harrison Craig
CD playing in the background.
 |
| "All my love, my darling...." |
 |
| Check the crowd! |
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| Very exciting getting a snap with the star! |
To check out more photos of the day check out the Facebook album here:
4 comments:
Hi Shannon!
Loved reading your post - what an awesome experience! I agree with what you said about 4 weeks planning being quite a short time-frame compared to most event planning, so well done on pulling it off so smoothly. I was actually there that day and it was a really good show with a lot of hype for obvious reasons!
You are right - the small things do matter and definitely do make a difference come show day. I came to the same realisation when planning music events at my internship!
All the best,
Delta
Wow what a cool opportunity you've had to meet high profile people on your placement!
Event planning really is about making sure the planning stage is done well so everything runs smoothly at the event. Its so good to be able to work with people and gain real world experience of just how much detail you have to cover. The more you plan, the less can go wrong.
Wow Shan- what a wonderful experience!
Loved reading about the process Westfield undertook in event planning and how you contributed to the overall success of the event.
Research and planning is vital to ensuring an event is smooth sailing. It sounds like Westfield was across all areas of the event plan including stakeholder relations, crisis situations and running sheets.
How frustrating for the performer to be so vague initially. This must have made developing marketing and PR strategies associated to the event very difficult. It is wonderful to hear that the event ran so smoothly regardless.
What was your favourite part of the event planning process?
Good Luck with the rest of your internship!
Hayley Ashburner
p.s looking fabulous in the pic with the star! You go girl!!
Thank you all for your feedback. It was and still is one of my favurite moments of the internship.
Hayley, my favourite part of the planning was briefing the staff. We had to hire extra security and brief our Concierge team to deal with any media enquiries or customer questions etc. AS soon as you share the exciting news with people about an event everyone has a real buzz about them. Furthermore, the team understood how much work had gone into planning it from a PR perspective so they too stepped up and assisted in delivering a succesful event in a true team form.
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